Persistent Formatting for Interactive Charts

1. A method comprising: providing an interactive chart comprising at least a first, second, and third chart element, the first chart element indicative of a first set of data, the second chart element comprising a child element of the first chart element and indicative of a subset of the first set of data, and the third chart element indicative of a third set of data, the third chart element not a child element of either the first or second chart elements; displaying the first and third chart elements of the interactive chart; and receiving a first command to expand the first chart element such that the second chart element is displayed, and upon receiving the first command, displaying at least the second chart element and the third chart element of the interactive chart.

2. The method of claim 1 , the interactive chart comprises a fourth chart element comprising a child element of the third chart element and indicative of a subset of the third set of data, the method comprising: upon receiving the first command to expand the first chart element such that the second chart element is displayed, not displaying the fourth chart element of the interactive chart.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising: upon receiving a second command to expand the third chart element such that the fourth chart element is displayed, displaying at least the fourth chart element of the interactive chart.

4. The method of claim 1 , a first default format applied to the first chart element and a second default format applied to the second chart element, the method comprising: receiving a format change to the first default format; applying the format change to the second default format if the second default format has not been overridden by a request to apply an override format to the second chart element; and not applying the format change to the second default format if the second default format has been overridden by a request to apply the override format to the second chart element.

5. The method of claim 4 , the format change conflicting with the override format such that format change cannot be applied to the second chart element without altering the override format.

6. The method of claim 4 , the interactive chart a PivotChart.

7. A computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that when executed by a microprocessor perform a method, the method comprising: providing an interactive chart comprised of at least a first and second chart element, respective chart elements indicative of respective sets of data; displaying at least the first and second chart elements of the interactive chart; receiving a command to expand the first chart elements such that at least third and fourth chart elements, respectively representative of subsets of data represented by the first element, are displayed; and displaying at least the second, third, and fourth chart elements of the interactive chart based upon the received command to expand the first chart element.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , comprising not displaying the first chart element while the third and fourth chart elements are displayed.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , a first default format applied to the first chart element, the method comprising: receiving a format change to the first default format; and upon expanding the first chart element to display at least the third and fourth chart elements: applying the format change to a second default format that is applied to the third chart element if the second default format has not been overridden by a request to apply a first override format to the third chart element, not applying the format change to the second default format if the second default format has been overridden by a request to apply the first override format to the third chart element, applying the format change to a third default format that is applied to the fourth chart element if the third default format has not been overridden by a request to apply a second override format to the fourth chart element; and not applying the format change to the third default format if the third default format has been overridden by a request to apply the second override format to the fourth chart element.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 , comprising not displaying the first chart element while the third and fourth chart elements are displayed.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 , the interactive chart a PivotChart.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , a fifth chart element representative of a subset of data represented by the second chart element not displayed in the interactive chart when a command to expand the first chart element is received.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , comprising: receiving a command to expand the second chart element such that at least the fifth chart element is displayed; if the first chart element is expanded, displaying at least the third, fourth, and fifth chart elements of the interactive chart based upon the received command to expand the second chart element; and if the first chart element is collapsed such that that third and fourth elements are not displayed, displaying at least the first and fifth chart elements.

14. A method of applying formatting to chart elements of an interactive chart to be displayed to a user of a computer system, the interactive chart comprising at least a first chart element indicative of a first set of data and a second chart element comprising a child element of the first chart element, the second chart element indicative of a second set of data, the second set of data a first subset of the first set of data, the method comprising: selecting a first default format to be applied to the first chart element displayed in the interactive chart; receiving a request to apply a first override format to at least the first chart element; and after receiving the request to apply the first override format: upon displaying the interactive chart while collapsed to display the first chart element and not display the second chart element, applying the first override format to the first chart element; upon displaying the interactive chart while not collapsed to display the second chart element, applying the first override format to the second chart element if a request to apply a second override format to the second chart element has not been received; and upon displaying the interactive chart while not collapsed to display the second chart element, not applying the first override format to the second chart element if a request to apply the second override format to the second chart element has been received.

15. The method of claim 14 , the interactive chart a PivotChart.

16. The method of claim 15 , the PivotChart generated from an interactive table, the interactive table built from a data cache, and the data cache created from data in a data source.

17. The method of claim 14 , comprising, before receiving a request to apply the first override format to at least the first chart element, selecting a second default format to be applied to the second chart element displayed in the interactive chart.

18. The method of claim 17 , comprising, before receiving a request to apply the first override format to at least the first chart element: upon displaying the interactive chart while collapsed to display the first chart element and not display the second chart element, applying the first default format to the first chart element; and upon displaying the interactive chart while not collapsed to display the second chart element, applying the second default format to the second chart element.

19. The method of claim 14 , the first chart element having a data tuple associated with it and data identifying the first override format is stored with the data tuple associated with the first chart element.

20. The method of claim 14 , the first override format and the second override format conflicting such that the first and second override formats cannot be applied to the second chart element concurrently.